Windows 8 won't boot via GRUB after installing Ubuntu with boot-repair

Question

I've just purchased a new Acer Aspire V3-771G laptop which came pre-installed with windows 8.

I shrunk the main windows partition and installed Ubuntu 12.10. I then had to run boot-repair to be able to boot to Ubuntu. Here's the pasted report.

This worked and I could now boot Ubuntu and it provided me with 3 other entries which should supposedly allow me to boot back to windows 8. However when trying these menu entries I get the following errors:

Windows UEFI bkpbootmgfw.efi

/EndEntire
file path: /ACPI(a0341d0,0)/PCI(2,1f)/UnknownMessaging(12)
/HD(2,c8800,96000,fe030bf1430a6047,9a,9a)/File(\EFI\Microsoft\Boot)
/File(bkpbootmgfw.efi)/EndEntire
error: cannot load image.

Windows Boot UEFI loader

/EndEntire
file path: /ACPI(a0341d0,0)/PCI(2,1f)/UnknownMessaging(12)
/HD(2,c8800,96000,fe030bf1430a6046,9a,9a)/File(\EFI\Boot)
/File(bkpbootx64.efi)/EndEntire
error: cannot load image.

EFI/OEM/Boot/bootmgfw.efi

/EndEntire
file path: /ACPI(a0341d0,0)/PCI(2,1f)/UnknownMessaging(12)
/HD(2,c8800,96000,fe030bf1430a6046,9a,9a)/File(\EFI\OEM\Boot)
/File(bootmgfw.efi)/EndEntire
error: cannot load image.

I have looked in the /boot/efi partition and the .efi files listed in grub are there but I always get this error.

Solution 1

You can try this:

1. Run Boot-Repair --> Advanced Options --> tick Restore EFI backups --> Apply.
2. Then in your BIOS, in the Boot order menu, select the Windows entry. It should boot Windows. To boot Ubuntu, you then need to select the Ubuntu entry in your BIOS.

Solution 2

I had this problem after installing Ubuntu 14.04 alongside windows 8.1 on my nice new lenovo thinkpad t540p laptop.

However, all I had to do was disable the secure boot option in the bios. Having done that, the grub menu allows me to boot either Ubuntu or Windows from the options.

I did not need to do anything else.

Comments

[Mike C.]

There is a computer boot menu that you can access by pressing F12 when you turn the computer on, where normally you could find an entry to boot into Windows. If F12 is disabled, enable it from bios setup (F2 - Main - F12 Boot Menu). It looks like grub has trouble chainloading Windows under EFI.

[ubfan1]

Do add yourself to the bug:bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub2/+bug/1091464

[Gui Imamura]

For those who might be wondering: boot-repair is a Linux app. See how to install it